


That Small Box

by me_midget (gin_tonic)



Category: Doctor Who, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-20 16:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2434700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gin_tonic/pseuds/me_midget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry has had enough of his life, of the media attention, of everything and decides to take drastic measure with the help of Felix Felicis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Small Box

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: #66 – Harry is fed up with the wizarding world. He steals some Felix Felicis, drinks it down and hopes for the best. The next moment, a certain blue box crashes in his yard, and a peculiar fellow steps out of it, ready to whisk him off anywhere he wants to go. But where would that be?
> 
> Once again I have to (and want to) give so many kudos and thanks to my lovely beta sassy_cat. Thank you so much!

It was late at night when Harry finally lifted the flask to his mouth. For hours he'd been sitting here in this Muggle park, trying to talk himself alternatively out of and into swallowing a load of Felix Felicis. He wasn't sure which one it was. Fact remained that he'd had enough. Enough of false admiration, enough of the reporters, of the stares, of the hopeful pleas. And Felix Felicis was his way out. 

Harry closed his eyes as he swallowed the potion, sighing as it warmed him up. Immediately he felt like a big weight had been lifted from his heart. Something told him to get up and walk for about fifty meters and so he did. He recognised the feeling from sixth year – he knew nothing could or would go wrong.

Suddenly there was this eerie noise – utterly strange, which would usually set him on edge. But this time Harry didn't reach for his wand. He wasn't even the least bit concerned when, out of nowhere, a blue box materialised in front of him. It just felt so right, so natural, that he didn't even blink when someone stumbled from the box and looked around. Harry tilted his head and looked at the man who was standing in front of him. Tweed jacket and a bow-tie, slightly askew, hair a bit dishevelled – this one was a handsome fellow. 

"Hello there!"

Harry waved and stepped closer. "Hi."

"You wouldn't mind telling me where and when I landed, exactly?"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Harry found the question a bit strange, but he answered the bloke nevertheless, then added: "You seem a bit lost. Do you need someone helping you find the way?" Because, really, it seemed like such a good idea to go with this handsome stranger. He wanted to get away – why not get away with someone like this? Especially when Felix was nudging him on.

The man looked at Harry, as if scanning him from head to toe. Harry didn't know why the man would actually agree to his suggestion, but he did: "That sounds like an excellent idea! My name is the Doctor, by the way."

"Harry." Harry shook hands with the Doctor and looked around him at the blue box he'd stepped out of. "You came from in there?" Maybe it was a weird version of the Knight Bus?

"Yes! Spaceship!" the Doctor exclaimed and started walking towards the box. "Are you coming?"

With Felix telling Harry to go, he just smiled, nodded and followed the Doctor into his small, blue spaceship.

"Wow," Harry said and turned around to try and take it all in. "It's bigger on the inside." The Doctor seemed pleased by the comment, but before he got the chance to say anything, someone yelled: "No!" Harry turned around and found himself face to face with none other than Severus Snape. "No, no, no, no!" 

So this was where Snape had gone to. For a while there Harry had believed someone had stolen Snape's body from the Shrieking Shack, but he must've been picked up by the Doctor. It would explain the faint trail of blood that had just stopped in the middle of the room. He had long since suspected – hoped, really – that Snape wasn't dead, even if he had no proof for that. But the thought had always been a comforting one, so he'd clung to it.

"Yes!" The Doctor said in delight and began pressing buttons and pulling levers on the console in the middle of the room.

"Hullo, Snape," Harry said with a smile and waved. Snape grabbed him by the arm – his Felix Felicis must have been wearing off – and started dragging him towards the door. But before they got far, the box started rocking and Harry clung to the nearest thing – to Snape. Who, in turn, clung to the railing.

"What are you doing, Doctor?" Snape shouted.

"Travelling!"

"And why –" Snape cleared his throat at the box suddenly stopped shaking and got up, roughly dislodging Harry as he moved. "Why are we taking him with us?"

The Doctor shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea. He said he wanted to help us find the way."

"The way." Harry heard Snape's trademark intake of breath – it was always loud. Possibly because Snape's nose was so big. "Potter wouldn't know the way even if you pressed his humongous head right against it."

"Oh, so you know each other." The Doctor seemed even more delighted. "Excellent."

"Doctor –" Snape started again, but the Doctor was clearly not listening. 

"You know, I think me being here is a really good thing. Lucky, you might even say," Harry said with a grin.

"Don't you think I don't know what you did? No-one is so lucky as to stumble upon a TARDIS that was in full flight-mode."

Harry tilted his head. "TARDIS?"

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space – TARDIS for short," the Doctor piped in. "My spaceship."

Harry glanced at Snape, but Snape didn't even blink at the word spaceship. Knowing Snape wasn't one to tolerate weird jokes, Harry became to realise that this really was a spaceship, not a weird magical object he had never heard of. What remained of Felix Felicis in his blood told him this was a good thing, so Harry just smiled and looked around with wide eyes. 

Snape turned back towards the Doctor. "Doctor, if you will excuse me. I will retire to the library – I prefer the company of books to the company of blindingly stupid idiots like Potter here."

"Nonsense," the Doctor said before Snape could move. "We've almost reached our destination. We're going on an adventure!" He walked over to the two of them and put his arms around their shoulders. "I've never had two male companions before. How exciting!" And he was obviously impervious to Snape's glare. Harry could only admire the man. The handsome fellow.

******

Harry didn't even have enough time to sit down and enjoy the ride before they landed... somewhere. The Doctor wasn't specific about where exactly they were – if he even knew. From the look Snape shot his way, this was the usual with the Doctor.

Before they went out, the Doctor explained a couple of simple rules that were easy to follow – and that Harry was sure he'd break at one point. Only by accident, of course. Stick with the Doctor and try not to touch anything. In the weeks he would spend in company of the Doctor that would become the hardest rule to adhere to.

******

There was a lot Harry found out in those first days. That time travel existed. What the basic rules for a traveller in time and space were. That there were places where his magic simply wouldn't or couldn't work – like the TARDIS, where his magic did strange things and felt _fizzy_. And he learned that the Doctor didn't do romantic attachments. Maybe he once had, but not so anymore. At least that much had Harry learned when he had quizzed the Doctor. The man was elusive with his answers and would rather get them involved in the next big adventure than actually tell Harry something about himself.

Snape, naturally, had rolled his eyes during all of Harry's attempts of communication. Snape's face would probably freeze if he didn't grimace disapprovingly every once in a while, Harry thought as he silently cursed Snape once again.

"What's your favourite place to visit, Doctor?" Harry asked and leant against the railing, watching both men work at the TARDIS' dials on their way to where- or whenever. 

"The universe," the Doctor said and smiled that smile of his that said nothing. 

"Yes, but specifically. You must have a favourite place."

The Doctor shrugged. "There are a lot of fascinating places – and I probably haven't seen all of them. I like the diamond coral reefs of Kataa Floko, the Eye of Orion, and the flower fields of Florana, for example." The Doctor's eyes lit up. "Do you want to go there now?"

"Sure," Harry said, grinning, and let it go.

******

Harry stuck his head into the library and looked around. It had taken him quite a while to find this room in the spacious TARDIS, but he had wanted to talk to Snape in private for a while now and Snape was always holed up between these books. He had to walk around several shelves before he found Snape. When he did, he leant against one, folded his arms and cleared his throat.

"I heard your thundering steps when you entered the room. Obviously, you haven't gotten stealthier in the past years."

Harry rolled his eyes."I didn't try to be stealthy. Or quiet."

"I noticed."

Harry huffed. "I thought about coming here to apologise for barging into the TARDIS like I did," Snape looked up at that, "But I decided against it." Snape looked back down. "It's not like I could know that you'd be here. So you can't say I did it on purpose."

"Can't and won't are two completely different things, Potter. Guess which one it will be for me."

"And I'm not going to apologise for staying, either."

"Alright. Now that you got that bit off your chest you can skip away again, Potter. I have work to do."

As per usual, Harry decided to ignore what Snape said. He'd come here with a purpose, after all, and that was not to tell Snape that he wasn't sorry. Well, at least it wasn't the only reason. "Does the Doctor annoy you?"

Snape shot him a look and concentrated on his book again.

"I mean, you seem to be annoyed by him a lot – at least from the way you sometimes look at him. And I was wondering why you are staying with him."

Snape sighed and closed the book. "Why not? Where else would I go?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Home?"

"And where's that?" Snape got up, put the book away and started walking through the library. It was bigger than the one at Hogwarts. Harry had no choice but to follow him if he wanted to continue the conversation. And there was no denying it – his interest was piqued. "Not even you, the Wizarding World's Golden Boy feels at home there anymore, isn't that right?"

Harry shrugged, but of course Snape was right. It was why he'd taken Felix Felicis in the first place. 

Snape pulled a book from a shelf, paged through it and put it back, then aligned the other books so none stuck out further than the other ones. "The Doctor saved me. I don't know how he found me, but he did. And I'm staying not only because there is no other place to go, but because staying with the Doctor provides me with unique experiences. How else would I get to go to ancient Rome? Or foreign planets?" Snape turned around to face Harry. "To answer your question: Yes, the Doctor annoys me. But at the same time I enjoy his company." And with that he turned away again. Harry knew the conversation was over.

******

He was sitting right in the middle of the stars, Harry thought. His legs were hanging out the TARDIS, dangling in space, and yet he remained safely seated and breathing. This TARDIS was magic, even if the Doctor called it something else.

The door next to Harry swung open and the Doctor sat down next to him. "It never gets old," he said and then added: "Well, technically, it does get old and stars fade and die, and new ones are born. But this, this view – that I will never tire of."

Harry nodded slowly. "It's fantastic."

For a while, they just sat there, silently watching the stars. But then the urge to bombard the Doctor with questions grew with every passing second. The most pressing thing, incidentally, wasn't about the Doctor at all: "How long has Snape been travelling with you?"

"A couple of years."

"I'm surprised you managed to stick it out with him for so long,"

The Doctor shrugged and adjusted his bowtie. "He is actually an amicable fellow. Good to have around, especially in a crisis. He keeps a cool head."

Harry nodded again. "That he does."

The Doctor looked at him with enquiring, sharp eyes. "How long have you known him?"

"Since I was eleven."

"That is a long time. How old are you again?"

"Twenty-three. Though I feel more like forty."

The Doctor smiled and looked back at the stars and Harry knew he'd already forgotten his age. Harry's twenty-three years must seem like such a short time for him.

Just as Harry started to get up, the Doctor started speaking again: "Severus... those years he's been with me, he's helped a lot of people. I don't know what has happened in the past – nor have I asked – but he seems to try and make it right."

Harry thought back at how angry he'd been at Snape during his years at school, thought back to the memories Snape had given to him. He still had those. "He's done a lot of good before you knew him, too. Even though he will probably deny it. But he did save my life more than once." 

And the Doctor nodded and smiled at him.

******

"Why is my outfit so short and yours so long?" Harry asked and tugged on the seam of the garment he was wearing.

Snape looked him up and down – Harry imagined his eyes stayed above Harry's knees a little longer than strictly necessary – and huffed. "Because you're wearing a tunic and I'm wearing a toga."

"And the difference is what?"

"What you're wearing is underwear." 

Harry's jaw dropped, but he had no time to do much more, because the Doctor came out from behind them and pushed them out the door. "Go on, go on, adventure awaits!" Naturally, the Doctor looked perfectly covered with a long, cloaky thing. He rushed them out the door and into the bustling nightlife of Rome in its heyday. They wormed their way through the streets, the Doctor constantly talking about this restaurant he once had been to – the one where he now meant to take them. 

Harry had to hurry to keep up with the Doctor's and Snape's long strides and kept his eyes fastened to Snape's back. Slowly, his eyes made their way downwards to Snape's sharp hips, then to his butt. Quickly, Harry forced his eyes upwards again. He certainly hadn't meant to look, he told himself, and willed his blush to go away. And if he had, it was only natural to sneak a peek. Didn't mean anything at all – it was only basic, human interest.

"Potter, do keep up!" 

Harry startled and found that in his musings about Snape's butt he'd slowed down enough for the other two to nearly lose him. Taking care to hold his tunic in place, he hurried to catch up.

"Better walk in front of me, Potter, or you might get lost," Snape said. Harry rolled his eyes and complied. For the rest of the way, he felt as if Snape was watching him and his short tunic. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling altogether.

******

After several weeks with the Doctor and Snape, Harry was quite convinced that Snape standing at the TARDIS' dials and pushing buttons was just for show. The Doctor must've shown him some he could press so he wouldn't stand around feeling useless – like Harry did. Harry had tried to understand how the TARDIS worked, but the levers and buttons just seemed to be pulled and pressed at random. He'd asked the Doctor to explain it, once, but the Doctor's jumping around and fumbling about had only confused Harry more.

"How long have we been travelling now?" Harry asked and leant against the railing, watching the other two. He'd come to the realisation that the TARDIS completely threw his sense of time and space overboard. 

It was Snape who answered, while the Doctor just shrugged and smiled. "About seven weeks."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "That long?" Had Ron and Hermione started looking for him? He'd left them a note, of course, saying he needed a break and that he'd be in contact – but there hadn't been any contact from his side, of course. Had the media reacted to his disappearance? Or had they, as he hoped, forgotten all about him by now and had moved on to a new story?

Snape, of course, knew just what he was thinking, even though Harry wasn't even sure if Legilimency worked right here on the TARDIS. Their magic was funky, after all. "Time passes differently on Earth and here. They will not have noticed your disappearance."

"Why? Or how?"

The Doctor stepped around the console and straightened his bowtie. "Time is not a linear thing. Time is... fluid. And while you cannot cross your own time-stream, you can be taken from Earth and returned to that exact same moment that you left, making it seem like you hadn't been gone at all, when in fact you have travelled for years." He seemed to speak from experience.

"I don't want to be returned to that exact same moment. I left because I needed to leave all of that behind me."

"What about your little friends?"

Harry crossed his arms in front of his chest. "They aren't so little anymore. And they know my situation. And I've left them a note."

Snape snorted. "A note will surely explain you vanishing."

"Don't presume you understand the relationship between Hermione, Ron and me. They will understand." Harry turned to the Doctor. "When I leave – if I leave – I don't want to go back there."

The Doctor smiled. "I say we can discuss this when it's time." But it was clear that he'd rather not discuss it at all.

******

"It was an honest mistake!" Harry cried as they were running through the sand. "I just said hello – how was I to know that waving your hand like that at a woman is an insult here?" The words came in gasps as he kept looking behind them – the war queen's hoard was catching up quickly. He'd tried casting a spell to obscure them, but his magic wouldn't work out here in this strange planet's desert.

"Only you, Potter, only you!" Snape gasped as he picked up the pace. The Doctor urged them to hurry – as if the swords and lances behind them weren't enough. The Doctor reached the TARDIS first, then Snape burst through the door. Harry glanced behind him, saw the white in the war queen's eyes and crashed through the door – and right into Snape.

Sprawled on the floor, their bodies were pressed against each other. Harry's dick reacted immediately – their desert garb covered them from head to toe, but was thin and left no room for imagination.

It was only after a couple of heartbeats that Harry scrambled away and up, face beet-red. Someone was banging at the door, but the Doctor seemed unfazed as he started working his magic with the dials. Snape was still staring at Harry when the TARDIS made a less-than-smooth escape.

******

Harry couldn't sleep. He still hadn't gotten used to the sounds of the TARDIS, to the whoosh and the creaks. Sometimes it felt like she was pulsating, as if she was a living being. Harry ran his hand down a wall of his room, trying to calm her – and himself. But sleep still eluded him.

Giving up, he donned a housecoat that hung at the door – once again he wondered who it had belonged to, who had lived in this room before him – and stepped out into the many corridors of the TARDIS. Slowly, he made his way through the ship, glimpsing into the rooms left and right. The whole place reminded him of wizard space and of the Room of Requirement – it was as if the TARDIS kept changing, as if new rooms opened up constantly. There was a room filled with fish tanks in which strange, mesmerizing fish were swimming. Another one filled with fine china, one with tons of pillows and duvets and another one that was a giant ball pit. Harry resisted the temptation of jumping into it and continued his way through the ship, instead.

Each door promised new curiosities and looking inside seemed to be the better alternative to sleeping. Harry pushed opened another door, but instead of finding maybe a collection of stuffed animals, he found Snape, sleeping soundly. The room seemed comfy, almost like a cocoon, and Harry couldn't help but wonder if its design was by Snape's own choosing or if he'd just slipped right into it, like Harry had. 

Eyes closed, face relaxed, Snape seemed to be almost at peace. Gone were the expressions Harry connected with his mean teacher from back then – instead, what was left was Snape, the man. And suddenly, all those conflicting feelings Harry had felt ever since boarding this ship came rushing back, swallowing him whole. He felt like someone had knocked his breath out of him again. He could no longer wonder how it could be that he felt like this about Snape, because this desire was so real and almost tangible that there was no denying it. 

Dazed, Harry edged out of the room and made his way back to his bed.

******

"Tonight we're going out!" the Doctor exclaimed and threw a top hat into the air. He looked dapper, with a suit, a waistcoat, a bow tie and shiny shoes. "What are you waiting for? Go get changed!" Harry threw Snape a look, asking him if the Doctor was actually serious, but for once Snape wore a defeated expression and moved towards the stairs. Well. If Snape was doing what the Doctor said, there was nothing for it for Harry.

'Going out' meant going to New York City in the 1920s, as it turned out. Harry wasn't quite sure how the Doctor did it, but he got them into what apparently was one the most notorious clubs in town – or at least that's what the bartender told Harry as he got them drinks. Despite the prohibition they didn't seem to be short on alcohol here.

"Do you know what has gotten into the Doctor?" Harry asked Snape as he returned. Instead of sitting down at their table, Snape was leaning against a pillar, watching the crowd as if he was expecting a dark wizard to jump out and brandish his wand at them any second now. "Why did he want to come here?"

"I suspect he likes that he's doing something forbidden." Snape nodded at the drinks, then took his and sipped. "Well, this is less bad than I expected."

"He could have done something forbidden almost anywhere, anytime. Instead we're here and he's dancing." 

The Doctor obviously loved dancing, everybody could see that. He danced with everybody – with a broad smile on his face – and looked like he was having the time of his life. As he swirled by, he quickly handed off his beautiful red-headed partner to a man who only seemed all too ready to take over, and snatched Harry's hand, dragging him onto the dance floor.

"Oh, no, Doctor, I can't dance!" 

"Nonsense!" the Doctor said and whirled Harry around. "Just follow my lead!" To the quick beat of the music, they turned and twirled and Harry did his best not to stumble and fall. He tried not to feel awkward next to these polished, beautiful people, and after a while he just let himself be swallowed up by the music and the movement. And then the Doctor twirled him again – right into the arms of Snape. Snape seemed to be as surprised as he was, but they had no chance to disentangle from each other, because the Doctor gave Snape a little push forward. And there they were, right on the dance floor. Almost immediately, the tune changed to something slow. It seemed almost natural that Snape's arms tightened around him and that they began to sway. Harry rested his head against Snape's chest – it felt like it belonged there – and listened to the quick thumpa-thumpa of Snape's heart.

******

Their first kiss was less expected than one would have thought. It happened in the library – Snape was fetching a book from the shelf and Harry, who'd come there looking for a chat, just leaned up and pressed his lips to Snape's. After some seconds of shock, Snape dropped the book and pressed Harry against the shelf, kissing him hard.

It was like someone had blown a hole in the barrier that had been between them, and now all those repressed feelings – anger, passion, lust, love – began pouring out. Harry's hand on Snape's arse pulled him in closer, and Snape had pushed one of his up Harry's shirt, almost touching his nipple.

******

"Company! You have company!" the Doctor shouted before he entered the room. Harry disentangled himself from Snape (at some point in future he'd be able to call him 'Severus', but for now he kept it at 'Snape') and grinned sheepishly. The Doctor had started announcing himself like that since he'd stumbled across them almost going at it in the library. Since then they only had sex in one of their bedrooms.

"You are ready, I suppose?"

Harry looked at Snape, who didn't look happy, but resolved. "Yes, I guess so." 

The Doctor nodded. "You know how to reach me."

Harry nodded. Despite knowing it was time to leave the TARDIS and face what used to be his life, he didn't feel ready. But, he supposed, he never would. And that was just the point: he – they – could keep on hiding in the TARDIS and travelling with the Doctor infinitely. They would have a good life. And they would get old or they would get killed. One way or the other, the Doctor would see them die.

Harry didn't want this – and neither did Snape. But what they wanted was to make a go of having a life together – whatever that meant. Maybe they'd get sick of it and call up the Doctor and see if he'd have them again as his travel companions. Or maybe...

"It's alright," Snape said and nodded at the Doctor. "It will be all right."

Harry hugged the Doctor, hugged him hard, and wished him good luck for whatever came next. Then the door of the TARDIS opened and they stepped outside. The Doctor waved for one last time, went back to the controls and three _whooshes_ later the TARDIS was gone.

Harry looked around. They were at the park where the Doctor had picked him up, but it wasn't autumn anymore. The park was green, the flowers blooming. 

"Shall we?" 

Harry took Snape's hand and smiled. "Yes."

******

The End


End file.
